CC.Madhya 10.119
Bhakti Vijnana Goswami · Varanasi · 2024
Chapters
Sanskrit recitation of the verse
Elo-duḥkhaugha-viśoṣaṇaḥ praṇa-milad-modāya, elo-duḥkhaugha-viśoṣaṇaḥ praṇa-milad-modaḥ, sāmya-śāstra-vivādāra-sadāya-tarpita-modaḥ, śāstra-vivāda-sadāya-tarpito, śāśvad-bhakti-vinodāya-samadāya-śrī- caitanya-dhyāna-veṭā-vaḍāya-bhūyāt-amando-dayaḥ. śrī-caitanya-dayā-niveṭā-vaḍāya-bhūyāt-amando-dayaḥ.
Heila Very easily. Udhunita driven away. Kedaya. Lamentation. Which purifies everything. Which purifies everything. Pranmila. Awakening. Amodaya.
Transcendental bliss mitigating shastra of revealed scriptures Vivadaya disagreements, Rasadaya, distributing all transcendental mellows. Stimulating Samadaya full of ecstasy madhurya of conjugal love Dayanidhe
Ocean of Mercy Tava Yor Dayana Mercy Buyat Let it be Amanda of good fortune in which there is awakening. Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!
Ocean of Mercy, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, let there be an awakening
of your auspicious mercy, which easily drives away all kinds of material lamentation by making everything pure and blissful. Indeed, your mercy awakens transcendental bliss and covers all material pleasures.
By your auspicious mercy, quarrels and disagreements arising among different scriptures are vanquished. Your auspicious mercy pours forth transcendental mellows and thus causes the heart to jubilate.
Your mercy, which is full of joy, always stimulates devotional service and glorifies conjugal love of God, may transcendental bliss be awakened within my heart by your causeless mercy.
This important verse, Śrī Caitanya-candrāmṛta-nāṭaka, specifically describes the Lord's causeless mercy.
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura explains that Śrī Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who is the most magnanimous personality of God, he distributes his causeless mercy in three ways to the conditioned souls.
Every living entity is morose in the material world because he is always in want. He undergoes a great struggle for existence and tries to minimize his miserable condition by squeezing the utmost pleasure out of this world.
But the living entity is never successful in this endeavor.
While a miserable condition, uh, while in a miserable condition, a person sometimes seeks the favor of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but this is very difficult for a materialistic person to obtain.
However, when one becomes Krishna conscious by the grace of the Lord, the fragrance of the lotus feet of the Lord expands, and in this way, materialist may gain freedom from his miseries.
Actually, his mind is cleansed by his transcendental connection with the lotus feet of the Lord. At such time one is enlightened by the loving service of the Lord.
There are many different kinds of scriptures, and by reading them one often becomes puzzled. But when one receives the mercy of the Lord, his confusion is mitigated.
Not only are the scriptural disparities resolved, but a kind of transcendental bliss is awakened. In this way, one is fully satisfied.
The transcendental loving service of the Lord constantly engages the conditioned soul in serving the Lord's lotus feet, though through such fortunate engagement, uh engagement, one's transcendental love for Krishna is increased.
One's position is thus completely purified, and one is filled with transcendental bliss accompanied by the spirit of such jubilation.
Thus the transcendental causeless mercy of Lord Krishna is manifested in the heart of the devotee.
At such time the material needs no longer exist, and the lamentation that invariably accompanies material desires also vanishes. By the grace of the Lord, one is elevated to the transcendental position
and then the transcendental mellows of the spiritual world are manifested. One's devotional service then becomes firm and one engages in the Lord's transcendental loving service with great determination.
All this combines to fully awaken the devotee's heart with love of Krishna. In the beginning, a conditioned soul is bereft of Krishna consciousness and is always morose in the material activities.
Later, by associating with a pure devotee, one becomes inquisitive to know the absolute truth. In this way, one begins to engage in the transcendental service of the Lord.
Next, by the Lord's grace, all misconceptions are vanquished, and the heart is cleansed of all material dirt.
It is only then that the pleasure of transcendental bliss is awakened by the Lord's mercy, one is completely convinced of the value of devotional service, then one can see the pastimes of the Lord everywhere.
He is firmly situated in transcendental bliss, such a devotee is relieved of all kinds of material desires and he preaches the glories of the Lord all over the world.
This Kṛṣṇa conscious activity separates him from material activities and the desire for liberation because at every step the devotee feels himself connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
Although such a devotee may sometime be involved in household life, he is untouched by material existence due to his constant engagement in devotional service.
Thus, everyone is advised to take shelter of devotional service to become happy and liberated. Srila Prabhupada Ki Chai Hello
dhuni take day visadaya pron meela ta modaya samnya chastra Vivada Rasadaya Chittopitor Chitarpiton Madhaya, Shashwad Bhakti Vinodaya, Samadaya, Madhurya Mariadaya, Sri Chaitanya Dayana Nidhe Tavadaya, Bujat Amandoya.
Ocean of Mercy Shiitani Mahrabul, let there be an awakening of your auspicious mercy, which easily drives away all kinds of material lamentation by making everything pure and blissful.
Indeed, your mercy awakens transcendental bliss and covers up covers all material pleasures.
By your auspicious mercy, quarrels and disagreements arising among different scriptures are vanquished, and your auspicious mercy pours forth transcendental mellows and thus causes the heart to jubilate.
Your mercy, which is full of joy, always stimulates the emotional service and glorifies conjugal love of God. May transcendental bliss be awakened within my heart by your causeless mercy.
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī- प्रचारिणे Nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādi-pāścātya-deśa-tāriṇe Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ, jaya śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhū Nityānanda Śrī Advaita Gadādhara Śrīvāsādi Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare.
Lambhiti Bujokanaka Vadatu, Sankirtanaikapita Rowkamalaya taksa viswambaro, dvi javaru, Yuga Dharma Palo, Vandi Jagat Priyakarow Karunavataru, Yantah Pravish Mamavachimampra Suctam, Sanji Vaya Killa Shakti Darah Swadamna, Anjamat Vadim, Prananda Mau Bhagavad, Puru Shay Dubi, Swasyastu Vhishwasya Kala Prasida dam deantubudani sivam mitodya manascha badramba ja tat, alle shi tam no matiratya to ki.
Historical background of Svarupa Damodara
Hare Krishna. So this verse spoken by Swarup Dhamadar Goswami, who was also known as Purushotamachari in his pūrvāśrama. is describing uh the uh mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu which we uh should experience in our life.
And let's try to meditate today how His mercy manifests in our life. First little background of this particular verse.
Purushota Macharya or Purushotama Bhatacharya, a house called sometimes, was a great Brahmana in Navadvip, very learned scholar, and also a friend of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
And when all of a sudden, in twenty four years old of age, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu left Navadvip and took Sannyas. Purusoto Macharya became mad of separation with him.
He heard that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to Jagannathpuri and practically immediately after arriving to Jagannathpuri, he left for his South Indian tour.
So it was unbearable for Purushoto Macharya to experience this separation with the Lord and therefore he came to Binares.
He came here to Varanasi with the sole purpose to accept sannyas, to follow the to follow the footsteps of Lord Chaitanya.
He wanted to come here and he started his not started, he continued his learning here in Varanasi and the one Mayavadi Sannyasi, a follower of Shankaracharya.
His name was Chaitanyananda Bharati And Chaitanya And Vedānta-sūtra is a very terse philosophical treatise
And Vedanta Sutra is a very terse philosophical threatise and it's very good to engage your logical capacities when your heart is aching, because it will distract you a little bit from your sorrows.
Basically, the advice which was given by Chaitanyananda Bharati to Purushota Macharyavos, you know, otherwise you will be too morose. Just engage your mind positively in studying Vedānta-sūtra.
Sometimes we know when we are emotionally disturbed, it's good to be distracted for from these emotions.
And if somebody has great intellectual capacities, the best way to relieve oneself from the sorrow is to engage in some intellectual pursuit which is difficult.
Like sometimes people play chess or sometimes people play some, you know. Nowadays of course they don't study Vedānta-sūtra for this, they just go. They just engage in computer games, but basically the idea is the same.
In a previous time, you know, studying Vedānta-sūtra was this kind of exercise. So for six years Caitanya Mahāprabhu was studying or was traveling in the South, and
for six years Purushota Macharya was here and he wanted to take sannyas and in some
schools of Śaṅkarācārya, uh some sampradāya there is a quite cumbersome procedure to take sannyas one has uh to do all kinds of uh sacrifices and ceremonies to be completely free from all the obligations, from all the arenas, from all the debts which we have.
And Puruṣōtamācārya, while studying under this Caityānanda Sarasvatī, he started this process of accepting sannyas but didn't complete it because
after six years he found out that Lord Chaitanya came back to Puruṣōtama Kshetra to Jagannātha Purī. And because he was so eager to see his dear
friend and mentor again, he left Varanasi and in a mad state of mind came to Jagannātha Purī. And it's very important and very interesting to analyze this from the emotional point of view.
This whole episode of Caitanya-caritāmṛta. He's a very learned scholar, he's a great pandit. But the experience of being with Lord Chaitanya gave him such strong emotional attachment to Lord Chaitanya,
that when Lord Chaitanya leaves Navadvīpa, he also leaves comes here to Varanasi.
And when he hears that Lord Chaitanya again settled back to Jagannātha Puri, he runs back to Jagannātha Purī just to be with Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
And all people who knew Caitanya Mahāprabhu personally, they had this similar experience. Just being near him gave them so much bliss that they couldn't leave him.
His whole traveling in the south for six years, Caitanya Mahāprabhu was traveling in the south.
And then again and again and again we hear from Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī who is describing this that uh you know he stays one day in uh Kūrma brāhmaṇa house and Kūrma brāhmaṇa uh decides to give up his family, decides to give up his home and travel with him.
Because the experience which people had, you know, practically unrepeatable experience, the experience which nobody else could give, you know, you come close to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and the aura which emanates from him gives you such a pleasure that you're just magnetically attracted to him and you cannot leave him and you're ready to give up everything else and follow him.
We see these descriptions also in Caitanya Bhāgavata, and Caitanya Bhāgavata it describes how Lord Caitanya was traveling to Rāmākeli and how the you know the thousands of people he he goes through one village and uh you know he chants the holy name, Rama, Rama re, he dances, he cries, you know.
And people just see this scene and they become attracted and they follow him because they cannot give up watching at this pleasurable sight of Lord Chaitanya dancing and chanting and that dancing and chanting behind him.
And then you know the whole village goes behind him, and then he goes in another village, and another village joins him.
And then by the way, he by the time he came to Ramakeli, you know, thousands of people are joining him and that's the capital of the Mughal Empire of, you know, and the Muslims are ruling there and you know Rory Kirtan is going on on the streets of Rāmākeli.
And the advisor of Hussain Shah, he becomes worried, you know, what this crazy fellow will do to these people and to Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
But again, what I want to say, this is the occurring event in Caitanya Mahāprabhu's life.
The same thing happened here in Varanasi when Caitanya Mahāprabhu came. You know, people started following him in thousands, because they experience something.
What Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave, and that's exactly what is explaining here, Puruṣottama Ācārya after he became Svarūpa Dāmodara Swami, after he halfway through experienced his sannyāsa, he's explaining the experience which people felt, and he says, This is your mercy.
And we have to understand very clearly this point. The mercy of Lord Chaitanya is not in theory, is not in giving philosophy. The mercy of Lord Chaitanya is giving us the real spiritual experience.
and transformation which takes place in our heart. And if this doesn't take place, it means that we are deprived of His mercy.
His mercy is taking shape of the spiritual experience which we feel, the spiritual emotions which we feel deeply in the heart.
And this mercy is still there. This mercy is still available. But some people get it, some people don't get it.
So while meditating on this amazing manifestations of Lord Chaitanya mercy, we also have to analyze our own heart.
Whether we are recipients of His mercy or by some misfortune, we are not recipients of the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Of course, being here is already a good proof that some sort of investment of Lord Chaitanya's mercy is with us.
The non-corrosive nature of mercy
But still let's analyze this verse which Purusottama Ācārya speaks immediately when he sees Lord Chaitanya after long six years of separation, he bows down in front of him and he recites this verse of his own composition and he says very important thing from the very beginning.
He says, Sri Chaitanya Dhyanidhe, He Sri Chaitanya, He, Ocean of Mercy. He is you know he's explaining his own experience, his own anubhava, his own uh you know yeah experience of uh his own life.
He says, you're the ocean of mercy. Tavadya bhuyat. Let it be. Let your mercy will always be with me. Let your mercy will never leave me because it is Amandodaya. It's very important.
That's the first point which we have to understand from this verse. Your mercy is always Amanda Udaya. Your mercy when it arises within the heart, Udaya, then it Amanda amanda means manha means misfortune.
Manda means like Śrīla Prabhupāda he wrote one article explaining the meaning of this verse in an old Back to Godhead magazine before he went to the West.
And you know, he translated this verse quite differently from the translation he gave in Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
And in this translation in Old Back to Godhead magazine he translates this word Amandodaya as non-corrosive. It's a very special way of translating this word.
Basically, karosiv means you know like in... iron. You know it's it's being corroded, it's rusted.
So what Srila Prabhupada wants to say, and it's very interesting, and it's uh it's the first thing which we have to understand from this verse, is that the mercy of Lord Chaitanya always brings fortune.
There are so many different merciful people in this world. There are some benevolent people, people who are engaged in charity.
You know, so many different great saints are coming to this world world and they're all trying to do good to the people. You know, there are so many people who have good intentions and they want to save the whole world.
Like we are coming here from Gaia, and in Gaia, of course, Gautama Buddha was there. And Gautama Buddha his idea was let's find a solution to save everyone in this world.
But what we see is that these people give some solution, they give their mercy. Gotama Buddha gave them mercy, Jesus Christ gave them mercy, Prophet Muhammad gave the mercy to his followers.
So many different people they were trying to give the mercy to all the people of the world, but we also can see that sometimes their mercy becomes complete opposite.
You know so many uh crimes were committed by the followers of all these charitable saintly benevolent persons who are giving the mercy on the name of their founder. So many crimes were created on the name of Jesus Christ.
So many people were tortured and killed on the name of the most merciful incarnation who is supposed to be the son of God. So many people are killed because Prophet Muhammad gave his mercy to. To his followers.
So many problems are created by the people who want to give mercy.
You know, I'm coming from Russia and we're coming, I recently I was in Kerala where you can see Stalin and Lenin, you know, the followers of of Karl Marx uh of communism who wanted to give mercy. They wanted to give mercy to everyone.
They wanted to make everyone happy without any exceptions. What was the result? Millions of people were killed. To make everyone else happy. You know.
Let kill all these bad guys who don't know what the mercy is and only those who are worthy recipients of mercy, let them flourish.
You know, so much, so much corrosion is taking place in this world by By people who are trying to give mercy. Because their mercy is not real mercy. Because their mercy is not the mercy which people need.
Sometimes people, you know, and that's exactly the point of Śrīla Prabhupāda's article in Back to Godhead magazine. Sometimes people give mercy by giving food. Sometimes people give mercy by giving shelter.
Sometimes people give mercy by giving some clothes. But that's not the real mercy. And this mercy at best is uh corrosive means that it's perishable. It's not long lasting.
It doesn't bring the long-lasting effect within our life.
What Purushottama Ācārya or Svarūpa Dāmodara Swami wants to say here is that if you get the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, the impression which you get in your heart, the saṁskāra which you get in your heart will be eternal. It will not be perished by time and it will not turn into something else.
Unless, of course, you are a completely hopeless offender, and you will misuse the mercy which you received. But it's very important to understand this point. Lord Chaitanya gives you some experience.
And we can see it happens still 500 years after Lord Chaitanya, it still happens, you know, people receive this Hare Krishna mantra. And they experience maybe not such strong joy
as they experienced while Lord Chaitanya himself was giving Hare Krishna mantra, but still they experienced this happiness within the heart.
You know, we were just doing Harinam in this Varanasi and then uh in Gaya and you know all the people they start chanting with us and you know of course now they're not chanting with us.
Now as the sign of appreciation they take video of the harinam. That's the That's the modern way of expressing their gratitude. You know, everyone, all the mobile phones are on and but why?
Because they experience something, because there is some sort of you know joy which they feel in the heart. They hear this chanting Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna
Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and immediately instinctively they take the mobile phone and start doing something to to keep this moment. Actually, what is mobile?
Mobile is just a device which helps you to maintain saṁskāras, you know. You get some impression and you want to make it more strong so you put it on your device, then you can repeat it and you know you can go back to it.
So that's what it is. So indirectly they are confirming this verse of Svarūpa Dāmodara Swami saying, yes, yes. There is something special which we feel at this very moment.
Some joy is coming within our heart, and we feel this influx of joy, and therefore we want to retain this uh joy uh in the you know uh memory card of our mobile phone.
Experiential transformation over theoretical knowledge
So again uh that's the point, which I'm trying to make. Lord Caitanya immediately gives the experience. Lord Caitanya gives this anubhava, and that's his mercy. You know, we know there are so many other great
ācāryas who give their mercy, there's no doubt about it. They give their mercy to their followers, but not so much by the way of experience, rather by the
way of explaining the truth, Rāmānujācārya, great ācārya, merciful ācārya. No doubt about it. He wanted to give the mercy to all his followers, by which means by
explaining more or less the philosophy of Viśiṣṭādvaita. That's the main way. Of course, you know we have this episode in Rāmānujācārya's life and he gave mantra, secret mantra, oṁ namo nārāyaṇāya to everyone.
Again, you know the same point in mind that a mantra can give immediate experience, immediate transcendental experience, immediate touch with the transcendental realm, immediate understanding that there is a truth higher than the truth which we know so far.
You know, by going through the material experience, the mechanics of material life, we get some bliss, but then Lord Caitanya gives the experience of transcendence by uh giving this Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra.
But ugh again what I want to say that other ācāryas mostly explained in a rational way the philosophy of the Vedas to their followers, and that was the way of spreading their teachings.
But Lord Caitanya, he hardly gave teachings. He gave teachings to Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī. Yes, for two months in Varanasi he was teaching Sanātana Gosvāmī.
And Sanātana Gosvāmī, Rūpa Gosvāmī, they taught the philosophy. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he didn't give the teachings to everyone else. Hardly anyone he taught the philosophy.
To everyone else, he was giving the spiritual experience. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. That was his way of giving the mercy.
And you know when people would see the depths of the emotions which he experienced himself, they would be immediately convinced. They would be convinced on the spot that this is the true teaching because we see it.
That's the truth. You know, like Śrīla Prabhupāda, he once asked, what is the truth that Krishna is God? What is the proof? Can you give me proof that Krishna is God?
And you know, so many people started, his disciples started giving different rationale. Krishna gave Bhagavad-gītā. He said, oh, Prabhupāda said, Bhagavad-gītā is just a book. You know, anyone can write a book.
That's not a proof. And then you know you said Krishna is God. That's the proof that Krishna is God. He said, no, I'm just an old man, you know. Old man can old man can tell so many things. It's not a proof, you know.
And then, you know, that they gave some other proofs and Śrīla Prabhupāda uh rejected everything. And then he said, no, the real proof that Krishna is God is that you chant his name and you feel bliss.
Because the proof of the pudding is in the eating. That's the example which Prabhupāda gave. The proof of pudding is in the eating. You know, the proof of the cake is in the eating.
You know, the proof of ice cream is in the eating. The proof of Krishna is God is in chanting his holy name and experiencing immediately the coming in touch with the transcendence through this media.
And therefore that's what was Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu's method of spreading Krishna consciousness, not through teaching, not through preaching, not through what I'm doing now. He was not doing this.
He was just giving Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. And therefore it is said, Amandodaya. Amandodaya it basically means it's all auspicious. It's never manda. Manda means material. Manda means slow, man means bad, manda means corrupt.
But his mercy is a Mandodaya because it gives you the impression and then our life is guided by the impressions which we have. What is karma? What is the mechanism of karma?
The mechanism of karma is that we get some impressions, we store these impressions in the mind.
And because we have this experience which is there, stored emotional experience in the impressions, our life is guided by this.
We always look for the same to repeating to repeat the same experience, or to avoid the negative experience, or to repeat the positive experience. This is the way of karma.
And Caitanya Mahāprabhu gives the spiritual experience and by giving the spiritual experience through the chanting of the holy name, He completely nullifies the material karma.
The material karma is plugged out. There is no energy within this karma because it's overshadowed by the spiritual experience.
You know, you get the bliss of chanting Hare Krishna mantra and you will never get the same bliss anywhere else.
People start dancing and like recently we were in Gaia, I said, and one crazy person, totally crazy person, started chanting with us. He couldn't repeat the mantra, he was so, it was all always, you know, something else.
But still, he was in such a bliss. He was jumping and dancing. And trying to repeat the, you know, words of the mantra. It was difficult for him. But he was getting this experience.
And again, because he was getting the saṁskāra, his life would be changed.
Three fundamental problems of existence
And that's exactly what he says here by saying that your mercy is a Mahādayā and your mercy, as Prabhupāda explains, manifests in three ways.
Because basically, people especially in India, but not only in India, they have three main problems.
And the three lines, the three previous lines of this verse explain the three problems and three solutions, three means of solution and three results of applying this solution as a result of Lord Caitanya's mercy.
It's actually very interesting how he Puruṣottama Ācārya of Svarūpa Dāmodara's party explains this. Basically the three kinds of problems which every one of us has. One is depression, one is desire,
unlocked. And by having desires, we also have stress. You know, many of you are students and you know what stress means by going through these exams and you
know all kinds of difficult tests which you have to go through. You're constantly under the stress. Uh, but why you're undergoing this stress? Because you have desires.
You want to achieve something and therefore you have to really work hard and you overburden your brain with all this completely useless information which you will never use. Never in your life you will use it.
But you will somehow rather have to squeeze it in because you have to pass the exam. It's a total waste of life. So that's the first problem. The first problem is stress, which is the result of desires.
We want to fulfill something, we want to achieve something, and as a result, we get the stress. And that's the first problem.
The second problem, which everyone has, is especially nowadays because of the internet, the second problem is that everyone is totally, completely confused.
Everyone thinks that he knows the truth, and that's exactly the sign
that everyone is confused because if you ask him what is the truth, you know you will be totally surprised because his truth will be completely different from your truth and it's only you who knows the truth.
And because everyone else has something different than they don't have truth. And you know what I want to say is that in this age day and age of internet everyone is completely confused because
in the internet everyone is preaching the truth, right? And this truth is completely totally uh contradicting each other.
You know, uh somebody is saying that you know eating meat is very good. It's very good for your health. Please eat as much meat as possible because there is a lot of protein there.
And there are scientists who are preaching their truth and there are astronomers and there are this religion, that religion. And you know you just one bottom of this truth.
Just push this button and this truth will be yours. The internet is full of different confusing contradictory views. And everyone, everyone, without exception, says, follow me. They're called bloggers, right?
You know, or podcasters, or whatever, you know, and and everyone says subscribe, right? Subscribe basically means follow me, right?
You know, and put Every time you see something, subscribe and put like, become my follower. I know the truth. I will make you happy. So that's the second problem which everyone has in this Kali Yuga. Everyone is stressed.
Agree? Chand haribou. Everyone is confused. Agree? And then there is the third problem which is described here uh indirectly. You know the third problem is a little more is a little less obvious.
But still the third problem is there the third problem is that everyone in this world feels that there is God I was born in Russia in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union at that time was completely, totally atheistic.
Atheism was the religion. And you know, my parents were atheist, my grandparents were atheist and I was an atheist because I was told that you know Gagarin went to space and he didn't see God so that was the serious proof
that you know there's no God because he was supposed to wait for Gagarin to meet in the space but somehow or other he missed. Anyway, so but I remember very clearly when I was a small kid I was praying.
I didn't know to whom I was praying. I didn't know how to pray. But the prayer was there. The point which I want to make is that everyone in this world knows that there is some higher force, some higher entity.
Everyone knows that there is some sort of God. Even those people who don't believe in God, they still internally they have this intuition that God is there. Everyone without exception. You know, you may profess the atheism.
Still deep within your heart, you have the fear, fear of death.
You know, like in Russia, there was one very famous atheist, militant atheist, for his whole life he was writing books against Bible, you know, because Russia uh predominantly Christian countries.
So he was writing these books and uh uh before his death uh he was so fearful he was completely totally fearful because he knew God is there.
And his whole life he was trying to prove to himself and to everyone else that there is no God, but still the fear of death is still there.
So the third problem, but despite everyone knows God is there, despite the fact that everyone knows that God is there, still, everyone is very apathetic to do bhakti towards God, to do devotional service.
Everyone is saying that yes, God is there, when I will retire, then I will chant my prayers, no problem. Now I'm too busy. Now I have to do my duty, now I have to do this, now I have to do that.
You know, everyone is saying this kind of stuff, Śrīla Prabhupāda had this joke, you know. When he said when we call people or when we ask people chan chan chan people say can't can't can't that's
that's the problem everyone is indifferent despite the fact that everyone has this intuition that God is there, still everyone is lazy when it comes to do some devotional service. Not in a hurry.
So this is the three problems which we have: the stress, the confusion, and the apathy, indifference towards God.
And Lord Chaitanya, by giving his mercy, solves these three problems of human beings, which beautifully explained here. It is said in the first uh line of this verse.
Even just by the composition of this verse, uh everything is explained. In the beginning, in the first word of every line, Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī indicates the problem. Then the second word of the line.
He indicates the means by which this problem is solved by Lord Chaitanya's mercy. Vishadaya, Rasadaya and Samadhya. That's the means. And the third word in each line indicates the result of the solution.
Lord Chaitanya gives the mercy. He gives the mercy by this Vishadaya, Rasadaya and Samadhaya. And then the result is pronmilat amodaya, Chita, Chitarpitan Madhaya and Madhuria Mariadaya.
Detailed analysis of the verse
So this is how he explains the mercy of the Lord. Please listen. It's very beautiful. It's not I don't agree with the interpretation of this verse that this is ten kinds of mercy or nine kinds of mercy. No.
Śrīla Prabhupāda is very clear there are three problems, three kinds of mercy, and three kinds of results. As the result of achieving the mercy. And therefore the mercy of Lord Chaitanya is Amandodaya.
As soon as the mercy is dawning within our heart we will feel the change within the heart. So he says that Helondunita Kedaya easily Udhunita this stress which is there is removed by which means? By vishadhya.
Vishadhya means by purification or by the brilliance which is coming from the practice of the holy name, of chanting of the holy name. We immediately feel the purification of the heart.
And when the heart is purified, there is no place in the heart of this darkness of stress or yeah of this grief which is there. You know the grief is only there within our heart because of the dirt.
And dirt in the form of desires. The first result which everyone can feel realistically, is that our heart becomes lighter. Now our heart is very heavy, and this heavy heart experience the negative emotion.
Why the heart is heavy? Because it has so many, the burden of desires. The desires is the result of karma. We experience some other things, so many dirty things in our life, in this life, in previous life.
And because of the burden of all these desires, our heart sinks. Our heart becomes very heavy. And negative emotions in the heart is the result of this burden of unlimited desires which are there in the heart.
When we start chanting Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare we experience that the burden of desires will become lighter and lighter.
Yes, the desires are still there, no problem. I still want to get married, no problem. And to become a doctor or IT engineer or whatever it is. But it's not so heavy. It's not so, you know, it's not so depressing.
Because there is a degree of desires. You know, desires may not be so bad if if they're not so heavy and depressing, by all means I have to achieve this.
Soadaya, V Vishishadaya here means, Vishadaya, the word Vishadhaya means lightening up. The darkness within the heart is dissipated, the darkness of desires is dissipating by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya.
And because the darkness is dissipated, the burden of desires becomes less.
And therefore, pron milat pra un Milat amodaya. One feels the transcendental bliss. Pra un Milat a modaya. One meets the experience of transcendental bliss, which is simply the result of purification of the heart.
The heart becomes purified, the heart becomes lightened, the heart becomes brightened by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. And therefore we experience less desires and uh we start experiencing little bliss.
In the beginning little bliss, amodhaya, amodha means transcendental bliss. There are three degrees of transcendental bliss in this verse in an increasing manner. Immediately Amodeja.
Amoda means transcendental bliss, not just material happiness, which is overshadowing the material experience.
So immediately from the beginning, a pra un Milat A mode, we have this first investment of transcendental experience in the very beginning. Then the next, when we start asking ourselves, where is the truth?
What is the real truth? And that's also the result of Lord Chaitanya's mercy, we start seeking the answers to the most important questions.
You know, like anyone is everyone nowadays is asking some questions and there is a guru, Google Guru. He is he is the only uh Kali Yuga Jagat Guru because the whole world is following Google.
So he's Jagatguru, Sri Sri Mat, Ashtotarasata, Paribraja Kachary, because he's everywhere. So but usually people ask stupid questions. All these questions which they ask Google, they are stupid.
But the mercy of Lord Chaitanya, you start asking real questions: What is the real truth? What is the absolute truth in this world? How to find this absolute truth?
You start looking for these answers, and by looking to these answers, you are going to Shastra. And still in the Shastra you see some Vivad. The Shastra contradict to each other.
One Shastra says, Abhedha. Shastra says everyone is one. You know the that there is only one truth, that there is only one God, everything is one.
You go to Shankaracharya, you meet with this kind of kind of explanation, Ahram Brahmasmi or and then some other Shastra says uh no there are two, Madhvacharya says there are two, he has his hand uh uh raised.
Uh and Lord Chaitanya says, no, there is one and two together. How they are together? Oh, I I don't know how, but somehow or other it's together. And they are coming together, rasadaya.
Lord Chaitanya starts explaining Shastra in such a beautiful and sweet way that yes ultimately yes we are one with God and we are different with God. How we are one and different? Because there is love.
Because ultimately there is love and love. Love implies, the very word love implies that there is a difference, right? For love you need two. But love mitigates the difference. Love unites the two into one.
So there is two, because there is love. And because there is love, there is one. Right? Rasadaya. He gives rasa.
He gives this rasa explanation of the Shastra which completely mitigates or completely reconciles all the contradictions. Yeah, there is two, sure there is two. And there is one. Sure there is one. Because there is love.
Because there is rasa. And uh therefore Lord Chaitanya gives this mercy and all the uh different scriptures they understand yes everything is clear.
There is two and there is one and there is God and there is soul and there is one duty which we all have. This is to serve the supreme Lord in love.
And because of this, it's very interesting how he says this: citte arpita mādayā. Madhyaya. You give your heart to the Lord. Citta arpita. You give your heart to the Lord in complete joy or madness of love.
And by giving your heart to the Lord, you become happy and you reconcile all the all the differences of the shastras. And then the third problem, as I said, is this apathy or indifference
uh and because we already gave our heart then śāśvat bhakti-vinodaya, śāśvat bhakti-vinodaya, it's very important. Vinodaya basically means uh vinoda means invigorating.
Śāśvad Bhakti Vinodaya. The mercy of Lord Chaitanya always nourishes your inclination to serve the Lord. The inclination is there. It's instinctive. Everyone is praying.
Everyone, you know, if they don't pray any other time, they pray before the examination, before the exams. You know. That's that's the time where they go to the temple and put some ten rupees in the Hundi, you know.
My dear Lord, please make my Pariksha successful. So but uh that's indifference.
Uh what Lord Chaitanya gives, he says, śāśvat, śāśvad bhakti- vinodayadā, your bhakti, your inclination to serve the Lord is being nourished all the time yes that's the way to live. Yes, that's the way to do.
That's the way how we what we should do. This is uh what we are supposed to do in this life.
Uh, so śāśvat, therefore he says śāśvad bhakti-vinodayadā. All the time our bhakti is being nourished by the mercy of Lord Chaitanya. Sammada. Why? Because every time we engage in bhakti, we feel joy, we feel bliss.
We listen to some discourse on Lord Chaitanya's philosophy, we chant the holy name, we chant the kirtan, we take prasadam. Every time śāśvad bhakti-vinodayadā, sammadadā, because it gives us complete joy and
mādhurya-maryādā. That's the result of this bhakti. Mādhurya-maryādā, as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains, you experience the limit of mādhurya.
You experience the very deep experience of God who is human-like Krishna, who is not God, but who is very cute, little child, who is ready to give you love, who is ready to serve, who is ready to reciprocate with you.
Mādhurya-maryādā, because of the engagement in bhakti, you understand what is the limit of sweetness of the Lord. You're not afraid of the Lord.
Because you know He is so merciful, He is so beautiful, and He is so kind to everyone. And that's the third result.
So we have three problems, three solutions, uh, and three results, uh and this all uh unlimited and uh uh completely uh eternal, non-exhaustible mercy of Lord Chaitanya.
He came to this world to give this mercy, to give this experience. And he still gives this experience because of the mercy of
Srila Prabhupada and all our ācāryas. He continues to give this mercy again and again and again, and we all are results of this mercy. We all have this experience. Our heart becomes lighter.
The burden of karma is not so heavy. We experience some clear understanding what Shastri is teaching us. Shastri is teaching bhakti. And not only intellectually we understood that Shastri is teaching us bhakti,
we are eager to follow the path of bhakti by chanting the holy name. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare Hare. To ultimately come to the
ultimate result of Lord Chaitanya's mercy, which is mādhurya-maryādā. To experience this limit of mādhurya, of the sweetness of the Lord in the spiritual abode and not only in the spiritual abode.
Experiencing separation as ultimate mercy
So, and uh to finish this uh lecture uh I just want to tell that Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, he gave several discourses on this particular verse.
And in one particular and in one discourse on this verse, uh he is chanting this verse, gives the translation of this verse. And immediately says, what is the real mercy of Lord Chaitanya?
He says, the real mercy of Lord Chaitanya is the feeling of separation with the Lord, with Krishna. And he chants during this discourse, three times he chants the verse which Madhavendra Puri was always chanting.
And he says this is the mūla-mantra of upāsanā. Aidina Dayaridra Natha he mathuranatha kadava loksya se khridayam tvada loka kataram Daita bramyatam kim karamyaham, Taetabramat Yam Kim, Karom Yaham.
Three times and when the he starts chanting this verse for the third time he started crying. Because he feels very acutely this feeling of separation with the Lord.
And this is the verse with which Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī herself was—And Caitanya Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda says that very ecstatically, she called Him Krishna-daivata, which means my dear, my darling, somebody who is very dear. She's actually rebuking Krishna. How you can leave us. You who are so dear to our heart. How you could leave us?
How you can go to Mathurā, how you could become unavailable to our senses. We know you are adhokṣaja. God is adhokṣaja. God is not available to our senses, but you
gave us the real experience, we experienced you, your presence by our senses, by our eyes we could see you,
by our nose we could smell the aroma which is coming from you. By our ears we could hear your voice, your jokes with us by our skin we could experience the touch of your hand.
You became not adhokṣaja. You became very tangible to us and then you left us.
And now you are in Mathurā. And Mathurā, Caitanya, Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, very interestingly he explains what is Mathurā. He says Mathurā is the representation of spiritual knowledge. Mathurā is not just a city or not just a geographical place. It's the abode of spiritual knowledge.
And he says, he explains this verse that, O Lord Krishna, You made Yourself available to our senses. And then you left and went to Mathurā. Meaning that you only made yourself available to our mind, to our meditation.
You disappeared from our vision and now we can only think about you. Now we can only remember you in our mind because you are in Mathurā. I don't see you.
Because I don't see you, my mind is bhramyatam. He is always unsteady. He is always disturbed because of this uh and uh uh how you dare to do this.
And Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada says that this is the ultimate installation of Lord Chaitanya's mercy, this feeling of separation which He gave.
He came to this world to spread this feeling of vipralambha-bhāva. This very acute feeling which everyone by reading Caitanya-caritāmṛta can at least have some little shadow of experience, some little ābhāsa of this real bhāva of experience of separation with the Lord.
The Lord is available, He is there, He's here. And all the great saints of India, they had this longing, I want to see the Lord. You know, we are here near Sankat Mochan temple. But Tulsī does experience the same feeling.
He is holding the feet of Rāmā and saying, You Pratta, you promised to me to give some boon. Give me the boon, I want to see my Lord Trump. And Preda says, who am I to give you the Darshan of Lord Trump?
But I can teach you how to get the darshan. I can tell you who is Hanumān. He's coming to your discourses every night. But what I want to say is that all the great saints,
they became saints because they had this longing within the heart. I want to see the Lord. Because they had this vipralambha-bhāva. But it's only the saints.
Lord Chaitanya comes and he says, here it is, take it. It's available to you now. It's available to everyone.
If you try to meditate on Lord Chaitanya, this mercy in the form of vipralambha-bhāva will come to your heart. And you will become a saint.
And as Śrīla Prabhupāda explains in the purport, you will start preaching Krishna consciousness all over the world and you will become successful.
And that's the ultimate input, ultimate installation of Lord Chaitanya's mercy. So that's that's what it is. Therefore his mercy is Amandodaya. He is uncomparable.
He gives something which is rarely, very rarely achieved this feeling of acute separation with the Lord.
And therefore, people all over the world in America, in Japan and we came here to Varanasi with people from 19 different countries. And they all come because they want to experience Krishna,
His sweetness, His mādhurya-maryādā, his highest limit of his sweetness. That's why we're here and that's why I'm here trying to explain the unbelievable mercy of Lord Chaitanya. Okay. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.
Becoming qualified to receive mercy
Yes. Thank you so much Maharaj for such an amazing class. We are very, very ungrateful. And uh we can see that how uh these are the things that we should look for.
These are the mercy that we should look for from Lord Caitanya.
My question is that when we are engaged in service to the Lord and uh uh we have already uh spent some years—one mouse is coming here to get the mercy of Lord Caitanya in ecstasy—
So when we are engaged in services and uh when uh some time passes, there is a tendency to become inattentive to the music So Maharaj, how can we uh again be situated and uh take the mercy mode?
Yeah, we become too familiar. We kind of yes, yes, yes, I know, I know, I know, I know. Uh to remind us about this, we have this tradition of giving discourses otherwise we would be just chanting all the time.
But the lectures which we give and the Pravajans they're just to remind us about the extent of the mercy, not to become not to take it for granted because yes, that's the human nature.
Whatever we receive, uh after some time we think, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I already know. I need something else. But we have to understand that no no no no.
This is something very special and uh we have to be always conscious, how special it is, and uh how much more we have to go to experience the full extent of this mercy.
Because we did get some little installment of this mercy. But that's only uh the how to say down payment. Little thing. The rest is coming, but we have to work hard for it.
so much Maharaj for beautifully explaining this work. So I never ever thought how beautiful this role it is, especially the way you explained it. How wonderful she mahapural. Very very very grateful to you Maharaj.
So Maharaj, like in through this, we understood how great is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy. Can we please uh share how we can actually become a recipient of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy?
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself explained this. Trinada peace, amani na madadana kirtanya Sadhari, there is no other way.
When we feel uh our complete unworthiness and when we feel our fallen condition, when we feel that we are not really proper
recipients of Lord Chaitanya Mercy and we don't have like Naratam Dastakur he thinks that you come here to save the fallen and I'm the most fallen so my turn is the first come to me the first.
And we have this feeling that I'm not That I'm nobody. That I don't have any qualification to receive the mercy. This is the only qualification to receive the mercy.
When we feel that we are not qualified to receive the mercy. And yeah, our qualification is total lack of qualification. So that's feeling that uh acute feeling of this total lack of qualification.
Then the mercy will come. Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna. So thank Maharaj for this very very beautiful discourse.
Maharaj explaining in the service Maharaj was portion that uh we have this tradition of hearing lectures from great source in Maharaj and so such lectures actually help us to understand the depth of the mercy which we are receiving.
We again become conscious. So Maharaj has mercifully come here, purified this place, and made us aware, again aware of what mercy we all are receiving, how we can actually become a recipient of such a mercy.
So let's thank Maharaj for one time. We are always chanting the Hare Krishna Mahā-mantra.